Thursday, January 10, 2013

Sewing Machine Self-Repair

Yesterday started off like usual: Alarm going off too early, stumbling around in the too dark morning to get the oldest off to school.
Getting dressed, brushing teeth, drinking coffee . . . drinking more coffee, setting up train tracks so the littles would stay busy while I tried to finish the "quilt" I've been working on for C's first grade class.

Just as I was finishing it up, the machine locked up and that's when the terror began. You see, I don't live in an area where sewing machine repair shops are easy to come by. The closest Brother retailer is an hour away and I'm not even sure a) whether they have a technician for repairs or b) whether they'll work on my American machine. Either way, if they'd actually work on it, it would cost literally more than the machine is worth to get it fixed.

So what's a sewing addict do? Since Brunhilde is a reconditioned machine anyway, I thought I'd attempt the surgery myself. Warning: this is not recommended if you live near an experienced technician! After turning the machine off, I spent 30 minutes giving her a good delinting and oiling. I had not realized how badly she needed it. I feel a like a neglectful mother. I think the recommendation is every 2 years for a sewing machine tune up. Oops, Brunhilde should have gone into the spa ages ago.

This seemed to work but alas, when I went back to sewing, she seized up again. This time around I meant business. I took the back cover off expecting to see some major thread tangle or something. If you're going to attempt this, I highly recommend taking pictures each time you take out a screw so you can remember where they go. No thread. Something in the bobbin area still seemed to be catching a bit so I was sure she was as good as done. I even went so far as to research a new machine last night.

I put all of the screws back in this morning and turned her on and she seems to be working okay. We'll see how long things last. If you notice a break in the sewing related posts, you'll know she's bit the dust.

4 comments:

My sister has a bernina and the Viking dealer inside the Joann store nearest her fixed her machine when she was at the same loss as you. Also, the Singer store was able to diagnose the problem and fix it as long as my sister called bernina to order the parts. (just in case diy fixes stop working for you) :)

Sadly she's truly bit the dust. I'm sure it's a pretty quick fix in the States but here no such luck. I brought a reconditioned machine which is causing the trouble here because the Brother store won't work on a reconditioned machine.

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